Tim Hughes puts the boot into the highs and lows of the online travel business (with an Australasian/Asian bias) with some blogging about consuming and loving travel thrown in.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

TripIt launches TripIt Pro - more features and a price tag (Re-Posting)

Assuming I have not screwed up the embargo timing, (I did break the embardo - Update Below)

Travel co-ordination and itinerary builder TripIt is announcing right about now that it will be launching TripIt Pro. This will be a paid upgrade to the basic TripIt Product. We don't normally do launches here at the BOOT but I am a keen TripIt user, am interested by the potential for an online travel content/organisation company actually charging users for a product and TripIt's VP of Biz Dev Scott Hintz shared some product launch learnings that I wanted to pass on to you (oh....OK...and by way to disclosure they let me have access to a Pro Account for no charge).

Quick reminder - the core of the TripIt product is to let you forward to them all of your separate itineraries for each of the parts of the trip and they combine it into one itinerary that can be shared with others. My recent review of the base/free product is here. Most of features of the base product are "pre-trip". The paid TripIt Pro product comes with lots more during and post trip features such as flight tracking, mobile alerts and alternative flights to help with delays and missed connections and a points tracker/combiner for all loyalty cards. You can read up more on the features here. All useful stuff, will report back once I get a chance to trial them.

Hintz tells me the pricing will $100 per year, or $49 if you sign before 31 July. You may have heard this described as the "Freemium" model - where the base but usable produce is available free but advanced features cost. We have seen this in lots of desktop software but I have not seen it yet in a travel product. Hintz says they have done lots of research to set the pricing.

I wonder if there is an irrationality factor to get over when it comes to paying for online travel tools. The OTAs are busily cutting fees, travel inspiration and meta-search providers are looking for suppliers and agents to pay and Google is the most useful thing the world but it is entirely free to use.

That said for a multi-mile road warrior $100 per year is a rounding error on a travel budget. I certainly will certainly spend more each year just on the tips at cafes buying coffee and can easily burn that it one trip using my cell to dial into a conference call.

Unfortunately they can only take US credit cards. Hintz said there were practical and cost reasons for that but in hindsight wishes and with the product on the cusp of launch wished they had found a way to launch the product with a reach beyond US customers. In launching the product Hintz said the cost of taking on non-US cards appeared prohibitive but as they face the realities of rolling out the product he believes they should have been more aggressive with targeting more markets for launch.

Another learning from the launch was to engage more beta testers earlier. A lot of the features from the final product came from tester feedback. If he had his time again Hintz says that he would have brought on more testers earlier to increase the feedback and speed up the product dev. It was nice of him to be open and share this.

Thus we have a Travel 2.0 company prepared to turned to paid subscriptions for revenue. What do you think? Do you think people will pay for more/better tools for managing itineraries, points, connections and trips?

UPDATE - apologies to all at TripIt. I did screw up the embargo timing by 24 hours. Caused the TripIt team to scramble to launch a day earlier and brief people fast. I earned a justifiable "tut tut" from uber travel journalist Kevin May. Then I tried to bring my post down and instead deleted it, meaning I need to repost again with the comments in the main text rather than in the comments section. As I said via twitter I "..proved that bloggers are lazy and untrustworthy". Thankfully TripIt have graciously forgiven me for my mistake.

4 comments:

Hi Tim,I think the freemium model can definitely work for a product that its users find valuable and Tripit should be no different, I dont currently use it but from what Ive seen I think the team have done a great job with it.

I'd say that for a successful adoption of the Premium option - the Free version needs to be first proven, scaled and widely adopted (which Tripit seems to)then it's just a factor of conversion.- the price point needs to be pitched right (in this case as you mention for multiple mile travellers it's a blip on a expense report if it provides for a good benefit)

In regard to testing our experience mirrors very much with what Hintz offered - as Steve Krug says Do it early and do it often.

@Carl - I have not tried the competitors mentioned in the original comments (now part of this new post) but I am enjoying using TripIt. I am in a tough spot for using the Pro. They have opened an account for me so I can get around the US CC issue. But I cannot sign up for the text messaging. More on this after my next trip or two

@tim. Have not used the other either - a brief look didn't satisfactorily outline the functionality or the process.

I remain amazed, but not surprised anymore, that US based businesses can't seem to, or don't care to, find solutions for the rest of the world to use their products.

I understand their home market is the main game but would think that a technology solution in the first instance irrespective of marketing push would deliver them expansion potential that gives something on their multiplier (apart from the usually lesser dev costs to bolt something on later)

In the end someone will usually innovate to provide service to meet a demand.

From previous experience this does give companies outside the US motivation to innovate and succeed via M&A expansion activity from the US.

We launched a similar product at www.kayak.com/trips. Just forward your email confirmations to trips@kayak.com and Kayak will organize your travel plans for you. It's also free. I do work for Kayak, but would like feedback if you give it a try.

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